[Rumours] France's Macron will invoke art. 16 of the French Constitution
This will give himself dictatorial powers.
Art. 16 has been used only once, by Charles de Gaulle between April and September 1961 after a failed coup which tried to oust him for wanting to withdraw from Algeria and put an end to the war.
[UPDATE] Art.15 / Art. 16 - Not for now...
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French legal expert, Thibaud Mullier says about art. 16 that:
Article 16 may be triggered in the event of a “serious and immediate threat to the institutions of the Republic, the independence of the nation, the integrity of its territory or the performance of its international commitments, and, on the other hand, in the event of “interruption of the regular functioning of the constitutional public authorities”. These two conditions are cumulative.
It remains to be seen whether the non-implementation of the budget, the risk of “stopdown” that it entails, fulfils these conditions. “The regular functioning of the public authorities is not interrupted because there are several possibilities provided for in the Constitution to have the budget adopted. As for the threat to our institutions or to France’s international commitments, it must be “serious and immediate”. However, this is a discretionary power of the Head of State that has no legal constraints. The whole point of this article, cut for de Gaulle, is to question the legitimacy of the Head of State. Does a president as weak as Emmanuel Macron have the legitimacy to use it? I don't think so,"
These dictatorial powers are not meant to last forever. Every 30-60 days, the Constitutional Council or the president of the National Assembly, Senate, or a group of sixty senators and/or deputies can verify to see if the conditions for article 16 are met. If they are not met and the French president does not want to give up his powers, he can be removed from office by the Parliament and its High Court.
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This is a developing story that HO1 will continue to monitor.
Check back for updates.
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